Kauri Whānau Update: Term 3 Week 6

So much to celebrate and lots of messages too. Please read these important messages carefully.

We have enjoyed being part of learning conversations with you and your child yesterday and are looking forward to more of this tomorrow, Thursday.

Speech Finals: 

A big congratulations to all of the speech finalists who shared their entertaining stories with us on Monday afternoon. We were lucky to have Daniel Pengelly, assistant artistic director from the Court Theatre as our guest judge. Next Monday evening starting at 6:30pm, Jordan and Oskar will represent Beckenham at the South Zone Speech Competition, being held at St Peters School on Fisher Ave. It would be lovely to see some of our children in the audience to support our fine speakers.

Cantamath:

Last Wednesday our Cantamath teams competed against 90 other schools, solving maths problems at Horncastle Arena. Those of us in the audience were worked into a frenzy of enthusiastic support, as we watched the runners put their thumbs up for correct answer after correct answer. The Year 7 team answered every question correctly within the 30 minutes, earning a golden ticket (displaying their 100 points) and coming in sixth place! And then it was Year 8s turn to stun us with their mathematical talent. They also earned a golden ticket and were placed 9th. Wow!

Cultural Festival:

Te Whānau Mahi Tahi take to the stage on Friday evening at Horncastle Arena as part of the cultural festival. We know they will will be stunning and wish them all the best for a fabulous performance.

Year 8 testing at Cashmere High School:

A reminder that due to swimming lessons, our Year 8s who are enrolled at Cashmere High School for 2017, have their testing morning on Thursday September 15th. They are to wear school uniform and return to school for the afternoon.

Swimming:

We are now into the swing of our swimming programme. Some adjustments have been made to groupings so that each child's needs are being met. It is great to see nearly all children making it to school on time to catch their buses. We need to see that 'nearly all' become 100%.

Year 7 Camp 2017 Fundraising:

In term 3 we have the opportunity to run the sausage sizzle on Thursdays from 4:30 - 6:30pm at the touch competition at Waltham Park. We did this last year and raised quite a bit of money for our camp. This will be a good way to fundraise for our 2017 camp, which will be in term 1 of next year at Wainui. We need a small team of parents who would be happy to help with these sausage sizzles. Please let Nicky know if you would be happy to be part of this team.

The next three and a half weeks:

Hopefully you have or will take the opportunity to look at the rebuild display in the hall during learning conferences. On Tuesday we spoke to the children about the current timeframe that we are working towards. The plan is that we will be busing to the Champion Street site from next term. We are in the process of finalising dates for visits to Champion Street this term and an information / question answering evening for parents. We will let you know once these dates have been set in concrete.

Writing movie reviews:

We started our new writing topic this week, with a drama based motivation. Tomorrow we will be watching a short movie and looking at an exemplar to learn about writing a review. On Monday we will be offering a choice of three movies for the children to view and take notes on in preparation for writing their movie review. The movies are:

Remember the Titans - An American football story with a strong focus on leadership. (PG)

Cool Runnings - The story of the Jamaican bobsled team at the winter Olympics, with themes of persistence and overcoming adversity. (PG)

El Dorado - A cartoon movie with messages about what makes a good friend and the importance of friendships. (PG)

Wheelchair Rugby:

Last Friday the opportunity arose to try out wheelchair rugby. What a blast we had! The children had lots of fun and are hungry for more.

Kauri Whānau Term 3 Week 5 Update

Life in the Intermediate Hub continues to be all go!

This week:

Wednesday: 

• Nicky's maths class trip to Horncastle Arena to view Cantamath projects in the morning.
• Cantamath problem solving competition at Horncastle Arena after school. Best of luck to Isaac, Alex, Rosie, Amelia (Year 7) and William, Kara, Dom and Oliver (Year 8) and our reserves Kaia and Oakley.
• Speeches shared in all home-groups

Thursday: 

• Canterbury winter sports tournament at Hagley Park. Best of luck our red hockey team and the red football team, as well as our rugby boys who will be playing with their St Patricks Bryndwr team.
• Speeches shared in Mountains and Forest

Friday:

• Speech finalists announced
• Final basketball game for girls team. Boys have three more games.

Next week:

Monday:

• Team speech finals in the afternoon.
• Swimming starts and runs for two weeks, every morning except for Tuesday. Children need to come prepared with togs and towel in a plastic bag. We have two buses travelling to Aquagym each day. One will depart at 8:30am and the other at 9:00am. Please check below to see which bus your child will be on.

Tuesday and Thursday:

• Learning Conferences. School closes at 2pm. Please contact the office or follow the booking instructions on the school newsletter, if you are yet to book your conference.

Being prepared to learn:

Stationery is dwindling for many children. Please make sure your child has the following: pencil, eraser, red pen, blue pen, ruler and glue stick. Being unprepared has a negative impact on learning.

Coast Home-group:

Please bring cotton buds and egg cartons for art tomorrow, if you have some at home.

Ski trip:

A huge thank you to the wonderful parents who helped out on our ski trip last Thursday. After a hiccup at the start of the day, all ran very smoothly. We were very impressed by the perseverance, positive attitude and support of each other, that the children displayed. There will be a display of written experiences and photos to view, when you come to the hub for learning conferences next week.

Wednesday: Last Soup Day

Our final day for selling soup is tomorrow, Wednesday. $2 for a cup of chicken, pumpkin or tomato soup. Order soup by the flagpole before school. BYO cup or use one of our disposable ones.

Many thanks to those who have supported this fundraiser. Year 7 & 8 are extremely excited about their ski trip to Mt Hutt on Thursday. The soup profits have reduced the cost of this trip by 25%.

Kauri Whānau Term 3 Week 4 Update

Spellathon cards

Please return Spellathon cards to school tomorrow, Wednesday August 17th. Testing day is this Friday.

Soup

Our final day for soup fundraising is tomorrow, Wednesday. It would be great to see lots of Year 7 & 8s buying soup, as this is going towards our ski tip. Pumpkin, tomato or chicken, for $2. 

Ski Day Reminders

Just two more sleeps before we are off skiing. The weather forecast is looking great, sunny with light winds. We couldn’t wish for better than that! The high will be 0, so lots of warm layers are a must. By now clothing has been sent home to those who requested it. If your child still needs something, we must hear about this tomorrow, Wednesday. 

Please pack a hearty lunch and a water bottle. The café up the mountain is very expensive. Children may bring a little money, but they are responsible for this. All children should have some energy food (e.g. muesli bar or mini chocolate bar) in their jacket pocket, for snacking on the slopes.

Thanks to those of you who have already paid the $40 at the office. If you haven’t paid, this has been charged to your account.

Your child will need:

Several thin layers are much better for keeping warm and comfortable than a bulky layer. Cotton is not great for the mountains; thermal clothing is what’s needed.

• Polypro or woolen thermal top
• Thermal ‘long-johns’ or tights
• Fleece or woolen top / jersey
• Waterproof pants
• A warm weatherproof jacket
• Woollen or thermal socks, not too thick. Socks need to come up to mid calf at least. Pack a spare pair as well.
• Weatherproof gloves or mittens
• Either sun glasses or ski goggles
• A scarf is optional, but must be tucked into their jacket, to avoid dangling ends.
• All children will be given a helmet
• A warm hat
• Sunscreen, for the face
• A substantial lunch, including a drink.
• Long hair needs to be tied up. 

It looks highly unlikely that this trip will be postponed. If the mountain is on hold or closed we don’t go. If it is open we do. The ski report is updated at 6am each day: https://www.nzski.com/mt-hutt. If the day is postponed we will send out a text. If you don’t hear from us, we will see you at school by 6:45am in the Sandwich Rd staff carpark on Thursday.  We will be back at school by 6:15pm, possibly a bit earlier. A text will be sent with our ETA once we leave the mountain.

Treaty of Waitangi Workshops

Our Treaty of Waitangi workshops with Sharon Tipene finished last week. Over the past three weeks we, both students and teachers, have learnt so much about New Zealand history. Here are some student comments from reflections:

“I was amazed that all that happened and I never knew about it, I really enjoyed learning every bit of it.”     

“I enjoyed learning about the treaty because I now realise things that happened and how we are fixing them.” 

 “Crazy. How much the Māori have been through to make New Zealand how it is now.”     

 “I felt happy when I heard about the Parihaka protests, I thought the protests were really smart and it made me feel good.”

Korfball

On Monday 15th August, the Year 7&8 Korfball Team took part in the second Christchurch Schools competition for the year, placing 5th out of 12 teams.

We placed 3rd in what was dubbed the 'pool of death', behind the two eventual finalists of the whole tournament, Kirkwood A & Heaton A.  

Special mention goes to Jaxon for being chosen for the 'Team of the Tournament' for a second time. This team is made up of the four best players for both boys a girls from all of the teams competing. 

Kirkwood A Intermediate were the eventual winners, beating out Heaton A Intermediate in a tough fought match. 

Congratulations to the Beckenham Guards on your excellent achievement, while representing our school with class.  

Kauri Whanau Week 3 Update

Ski Trip: 

There are just a few people left to fill in the ski form. Here is the link.  Today you should have received the ski notice which includes a gear list. If you are joining us as a parent helper, another notice will be emailed to you later this week. Many thanks to the families who loaned us skis and boots today, so that our first time skiers could experience the equipment, without the slippery surface. If you have offered to lend clothing, please name it and send it along to school this week.

Speeches:

Children should be finished writing their speeches by this Thursday. Please ask your child to show you what they have written. If they haven't finished, please encourage them to complete their speech at home by Monday. The speech needs to tell a story and be between 3 and 5 minutes long. As well as writing their speech, the children also need to spend time practising the presentation, with an emphasis on expression, gesture and eye contact. While we will be working on this next week at school, practise at home as well will make a big difference to confidence levels and success.

Becamath:

On Monday afternoon we held our annual Becamath competition, our version of Cantamath problem solving. The teamwork was fabulous, determination impressive and enthusiasm contagious. Well done to all teams for their superb effort. The first placed Year 7 team was from Coast: Isla, Vita, Tyler and Isaac. The first placed Year 8 team was from Forest: Ruben, Holly, William and Shaun. It was interesting to observe the number of children who stood up while working.

Touch in Term 4:

SmartTouch is a touch rugby competition organised by St Martins School for local schools, held at Waltham Park on Thursday afternoons in term 4. The idea is for children to get together in teams of at least six, three boys and three girls, with a parent to act as manager / coach. Go to the SmartTouch site to register a team.

Soup for lunch tomorrow, Wednesday.

Remember your $2 for a tasty cup of soup for lunch tomorrow, Wednesday. BYO cup or use one of our disposable ones. Choice of chicken, pumpkin or tomato. Yum! Pay for your soup by the flagpole before school.

Kauri Week Two Update

Ski trip: 

Our soup fundraising is going well, with $400 raised so far. We hope to sell soup for another two Wednesdays, and with similar profits, we will be able to reduce the cost of the ski trip to $40 per child. So far half of our hub families have completed the form providing details needed about each child for this trip. If you have yet to complete this form, please click on the link below.
Ski form

Keeping up to date with learning commitments:

• Maths home learning, which for many children is a Cantamath project, is due tomorrow, Friday.
• Many children are making good progress with their storytelling speeches. The writing of these should be completed by next Thursday, allowing for time to practise presentation before sharing in week 5. Please ask your child to share their speech with you.

It's only week two and already we have lots to celebrate...

Our Sir Peter Blake Young Leader for 2016.

Our first Gold Leaders for 2016.

And the Blazers basketball team celebrated their first win of the season!

Distinction, Distinction, High Distinction, Distinction. Wow, what awesome scientists.

Harvey, from World Vision, came to thank those of us who did the Famine, for raising over $1500 for the refugees of Syria.

Winter Tournament: 

True to its name, the winter weather arrived in time for our South Zone Winter Tournament, which was played on Monday 1 August. With 15 teams participating, we were very grateful to all of the coaches who were able to help out on the day.

Passing and shooting, the netball players battled and pivoted, scoring and defending on the netball courts. Well done to all four teams, with three teams placing third and one team placing sixth.

With six football teams, playing 5-a-side, there were plenty of fast paced games to enjoy. Adjusting to the small pitches and different way of playing took some doing, however teams soon found their stride and went on to score goals and corners. Well done to the year 7 and 8 teams who placed first and two fourths (in different grades) and great work to the year 5 and 6 teams who placed first and second (in different grades).

Bobbly rugby fields, set a challenge for the hockey players,

particularly those used to the smooth surface of astroturf. Swift passing and controlled dribbling ensured goals were scored, along with solid defending to prevent goals at the other end. Great work all four hockey teams, with placings of second, fourth and two sixth placings.

Special congratulations to the year 7 and 8 Football Red team and to the year 7 and 8 Hockey Red team. They have both qualified to compete in the Canterbury Winter Tournament being held on Thursday 25 August, representing our south zone.

Special thanks to all of our coaches who made it possible for us to take so many teams to the tournament: Jarred Skelton, Caitlyn Downing, Sonja Sintmaartensdyk, George York, Katie Chapman, Sarah Freeman, Jenni Adams, Nicky Dunlop, Leone Scott, Jacky Sargent, Fred Simpson, Kate Inwood, Ashley Tough, Jonny Inwood, Tyler Logan and Rod Gray.